Some of you may have read his successful books. Others might keep track of him via his popular blog. Nevertheless, Jeff Croft is one of the leading advocates of web standards today. In this quick fire, Jeff will answer everything from his favorite music to his "web development pet peeves". Enjoy!
Who Is Jeff Croft?
Jeff has been working on the web for over 12 years. He began his career as a web designer in 1995, using SimpleText on Macintosh System 7 and Netscape 1.1N as his development environment. Since then, he has worked in several industries, bringing modern web design and development to places where you don’t always find it, including education and journalism. Beyond his work for Blue Flavor, Jeff is a blogger, author, speaker, critic, and industry thought leader.
The Interview
What City Do You Live In?
I consider Seattle, WA home these days. However, I am temporarily living near where I grew up, in Kansas City, MO, to tend to some personal matters. Hopefully I'll be back in Seattle soon.
Current Employer?
Your Job Title?
My title is Designer, but I also also do a decent amount of development.
Favorite Food?
Hmm. Mexican. And seafood. And Mexican with seafood. :)
Music Of Choice?
I studied music (specifically jazz) in college and sort of learned to like just about everything. But, my favorites genres are what I would call "black music." Jazz, blues, R&B, soul, funk, hip-hop, etc.
Favorite Web Dev Book That You Didn't Write?
I read a lot more general design books than web development books, but if I'm going to pick a webdev book, I would have to be obvious and choose Designing With Web Standards, by Jeffrey Zeldman. Sure, almost everyone's read it by now, but it's the closest thing we have to a bible.
Who Are Your Web Development Heroes?
There are so many. I consider Mike Davidson to be a mentor, of sorts. He's helped me along more than he probably knows. And of course we all owe a lot to some of the pioneers of web standards and CSS, including Jeffrey Zeldman, Dave Shea, and Eric Meyer. There are so many great people doing work on the web today, there's no way I could name them all.
Your Pet Peeve?
Hmm. I'm a pretty laid back guy -- not too much bothers me. But if I have to choose a pet peeve, I'd say it's people apologizing when they don't need to, and therefore don't mean it. I hate it when people say they're sorry all the time. Grow a sack!
Your Web Development Pet Peeve?
I would say my biggest pet peeve related to the industry would be people focusing on technology instead of design, standards instead of users, and validation rather than innovation. Web standards and best practices are noble goals, but all too often in our community people forget they are a means to an end, not the end itself.
What is Your Most Embarrassing Experience as a Web Developer?
I'm not sure if it really qualifies as "embarrassing," but probably my most regretful moment in my career was when I wrote a blog post that, when read by others, seemed to imply that I had some objection to British folks. It was an attempt at humor gone horribly wrong, and I upset many of my English friends. It was tough to deal with, because I really love all those people. Hell, London is my favorite city in the world! :)
Most Fulfilling Experience as a Web Developer?
I would say my most fulfilling experiences are meeting new people at conferences and industry events. I love exchanging, knowledge, I love meeting people, I love traveling, and I love this industry. I just get a real kick out of being around a bunch of new people that are passionate about the same things I am. A lot of times at these events, I feel part of something a lot bigger, and that's an awesome feeling.
Open Source Flash Or CSS?
Whichever is more appropriate for the job at hand. I'm a CSS guru of sorts, and I'm not much of a Flash programmer. So, I'm probably going to choose CSS most of the time. But, Flash is a great technology that, when used responsibly, can be the perfect solution to many problems.
Ignore IE5 When Developing? Ignore IE6??
Ignore IE. Period. :)
Okay, that's probably not fair. Again, it boils down to the situation at hand. What browsers you're going to fully support is a business decision first, and a technology one second. You have to make that business decision on a case-by-case basis.
The question says, "when developing." Well, "when developing," I personally never use any version of IE. I feel much more comfortable developing in a browser that is more reliably accurate when it comes to rendering things by the spec, and also a browser that has better debugging tools available. Personally, I use Safari, but Firefox is clearly a good choice, as well.
What Technologies are you Excited About?
Django (http://djangoproject.com). The beauty of working in Django has made it hard for me to build a website any other way, these days. The fact that I have infinite control and flexibility; that I can do *whatever* I want and not ever have the limitations of some CMS imposed on me; the fact that everything feels so elegant and clean, and done the "right" way. Everything about Django and Python feels like it was made for a designer who my philosophy: that things should be robust and powerful and subscribe to best practices, but never at the expense of being useful and usable.
I'm also really excited about @font-face font embedding, which finally feels like it may actually take off. It's nowhere near ready-for-primetime yet, but it might finally have the momentum behind it to get us there eventually.
Favorite Javascript library - if any?
I don't write a lot of Javascript, but when I do, I look to jQuery.
Mac or PC?
Mac.
Most Used Software when Developing?
TextMate. Photoshop. Subversion. That's about it.
Most irritating Client Question?
I don't know if I can pick one question, but the most irritating things a client can do are:
- Ask you to design their site, and then be unwilling to relinquish any degree of creative control.
- Decide their budget or timeframe is more important than quality.
Both of these things lead to a situation where the only choices are to terminate the relationship or produce something that sucks. I'm usually unwilling to produce something that sucks.
New Book in the Works?
I can neither confirm nor deny rumors that I may be working on a book about web typography. ;)
Best Advice for New Developers
For developers: get with the latest technologies, and don't fall behind. Get with modern, dynamic languages like Ruby and Python. Get out of your God-forsaken PHP rut, already. :)
For designers: learn about *design*. Remember that design is all about storytelling and communication, and not at all about writing good CSS or making cool gradients. Learn about layout, color, and typography. Get over the idea that you're an artist. You're not. We do commercial work so that people can make money. It's not art, and you'll do better work once you realize it.
Purchase His Books!
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Pro CSS Techniques
Pro CSS Techniques is the ultimate CSS book for the modern web developer. If you've already got web design and development basics under your belt, but want to take your knowledge to the next level and unleash the full power of CSS in your web sites, then this is the book for you. It is a collection of proven CSS techniques that you can use daily to get the most out of the time you spend on your projects, from start to finish.
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Web Standards Creativity
The topics range from essential CSS typography and grid design, effective styling for CMS-driven sites, and astonishing PNG transparency techniques, to DOM scripting magic for creating layouts that change depending on browser resolution and user preference, and better print layouts for web pages.
Having read both of these books, I highly recommend them! Thanks again to Jeff for giving us this interview! Comment away.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Geoff August 29th
Good interview. I like his “Best Advice for Designers”
Yashh August 29th
Ignore IE. awesome….
Wayne August 29th
“Get out of your God-forsaken PHP rut, already.”
Yeesh. Ya lost me, dude.
Mark Abucayon August 29th
wow jeff croft one of my fav. thank you for this one.
Stimul8d August 29th
Nice article guys. Why does no one ever mention ASP anymore though,..yeah Rails is the bomb for some damn fast prototyping and for smaller apps but ASP.Net is a very worthwhile platform for enterprise level solutions.
Jeff Croft August 29th
> Yeesh. Ya lost me, dude.
Perhaps the smiley face didn’t make it clear that I was teasing?
James August 29th
Wow… respect++ for not hating on jQuery… I’m sick of people who hate it!
Nice interview Jeff!!
Javier Rios August 29th
This is more towards Jcroft but any design books you suggest reading outside of the web world. Books that inspired, taught, informed you?
Gelay August 29th
First!!!!
Chad August 29th
I liked this one and quick tut on djangoproject.com would be good.
Gelay August 29th
oops, kept the browser open too long. 8th!!!
Ben Griffiths August 29th
Good interview, thanks
Calvin August 29th
I just finished reading the Web Standard Creativity. It is a good book. You guys should give it a try if you haven’t
Good interview btw, Jeff.
insic August 29th
ive been following this man. i love you Jeff! just kidding
Jeff Croft August 29th
I love you too, insic.
As for design books, here are a few of my favorites:
The Elements of Typographic Style (Bringhurst)
Making and Breaking the Grid (Samara)
Layout (Ambrose/Harris)
Designing Interactions (Moggridge)
All of Edward Tufte’s books
Jorge Quinteros August 29th
Pretty straight forward interview but it’s always a pleasure when hot shots share personal and professional info on their work.
Nate August 29th
This was an awesome interview. I own “Pro CSS Techniques” and it has done wonders on helping me understand CSS. It actually was the book that helped me transition from tables to CSS. Which can be very scary if you developed sites for years that were all built with nested tables. Thanks Jeffrey for the write up and thank you Jeff for taking the time to share a little about yourself.
Aaron August 29th
I disagree with this guy on a lot of things, especially when he says he gets frustrated when people are “focusing on technology instead of design, standards instead of users, and validation rather than innovation.”
1) You’ve got to have the technology and design working together not one over the other
2) Standards are there to help the users get most of what they can out of your web site
3) Validation is important so that the your web site can be viewed as you designed it in all browsers
And what is up with not caring about IE users? Lets not forget that the majority of users use this browser and it would be stupid to ignore it. Yes, IE is by far not the best web browser or standard compliant but you should still design for it - for all browsers for that matter. …it’s not that difficult if you know what you’re doing.
w1sh August 29th
Jeez, whatta newb.
Paul Gendek August 29th
Man… I really need to get into Ruby
Paul August 29th
Good interview, thanks for your time Jeff.
Jeffrey Way August 29th
@Aaron - He was joking about the “ignore IE statement”. Try to pay attention to the smiley faces.
David August 29th
Good interview, shame the links in it aren’t linked, just plain text
You can get a long way with php, and, for some projects, it’s a given to secure the contract, since maintenance contracts with other businesses require php to be used
BroOf August 29th
Nice Interview with a lot of funny stuff! Love it ;D!
Kevin Quillen August 29th
“I’m also really excited about @font-face font embedding, which finally feels like it may actually take off.”
Sorry, for now its all about FLIR by Cory Mawhorter.
Kevin Quillen August 29th
Also… there is nothing wrong with PHP, unlike Ruby.
Connor August 29th
“There’s nothing wrong with PHP”…
@Kevin, really? There is nothing wrong with PHP at all?! Man I didn’t know that! Since PHP is absolutely *perfect*, why would you ever bother learning any other server side languages?
Abethebabe August 29th
PHP isn’t perfect Connor but its a pretty useful language, Ruby on Rails has a lot of hype but it is also a good language to use…It depends on the circumstances. RoR has a lot of overhead so I would only use it on larger web applications but if I am making a contact form or something simple PHP is the more reasonable of the two.
It’s all about balance, it’s better to know both PHP & Ruby than only one I beleive
Connor August 29th
@Abethebabe
I completely agree with what your saying… I know both, and use both. But if I know that my project will need more server side coding, I will use Ruby because you have to generally write less code, and it’s generally much more human readable.
I simply think that saying there’s nothing wrong with PHP is a little…inaccurate.
Anton August 29th
I’ve been following him too! I love you more, Jeff!!!
Seriously though, solid interview. Two thumbs up here.
Rafyta August 29th
Designers != Artists
YESSS I’ve been saying that for ages…
“Get over the idea that you’re an artist. You’re not. We do commercial work so that people can make money. It’s not art, and you’ll do better work once you realize it. ”
Couldn’t agree more!
Alex Coleman August 29th
Great Read.
Thanks Jeff…Love your work.
kristarella August 30th
Good answers!
Poo to IE (poo poo to the corporations that force employees to use it). Yay for jQuery and Mac and Ruby (don’t know Ruby yet, but maybe I’ll get to learn sometime :P).
Nettuts crew, can you check your RSS feed please? There seems to be some very weird paragraph breaking going on. In the middle of sentences, as if there’s not allowed to be a paragraph more than two lines long.
David Walsh August 30th
I don’t agree with his PHP comment, but to each his own. Good read.
Chris August 30th
Awesome interview. Good read.
Jeff Croft August 30th
Hey guys…glad you’re all enjoying the interview. Just wanted to make a comment on the PHP thing…
I have no objection to PHP. It’s not my language of choice, but it works well for a lot of people in a lot of cases. If you love PHP, then that’s awesome. What I was referring to was the “PHP rut,” not PHP the language. What I mean by that is this: there are a lot of people who pick up one thing and never learn something else. PHP is a good example of that. I know so many people who learned PHP 5 or 6 years ago and are still living off that knowledge. They’re in a rut. I’m suggesting they get out of that rut and learn something new and modern. Maybe that “new and modern something” is Cake or Code Igniter. Maybe it’s just OOP and PHP5. But please, learn *something* new. You can’t survive in this industry on the knowledge you gained five years ago.
Now, the very fact that you’re reading this site probably means you’re not the person I was talking to. Clearly, you’re trying to keep up and learn. And if you want to keep using PHP, then I think that’s fine. But I hope you’re at least using it in modern ways (i.e. object oriented and not mixing PHP and HTML…yuck).
Hope that clears it up.
Pablo Impallari August 31st
Jeff: I think you are talking about Kohana Php Framework
http://kohanaphp.com/
Taylor Satula August 31st
Even though there was a
Still, DROP IE!!! ( I hate all caps as much as you do, sorry bout that )
Jatin Meshiya August 31st
It is really very nice to here from Jeff. Good Jeff it is really very wonderfull experience! yes one more thing that i want to focus that is there a way that without using any css hacks one can build a site that is competible in all browsers on the eath?
I really appreciate your efforts on css and I am waiting to have some tips n trick from you about this matter.
Ya I am really impressed and my staff also.
Shane September 1st
Jeff - interesting point about being in a rut. I know a lot of people who are stuck in a rut, whether it be PHP, ASP.NET, or whatever.
When I started out, you could say I was stuck in a Microsoft rut. Being a Visual C++ programmer, then C# programmer, it was only when I started using Wordpress, and consequently PHP, that I started thinking hmmm, there’s a lot of good stuff out there. Since then, I’ve had a good look at CodeIgniter and Rails. Opening my eyes to non-Microsoft technologies was the best thing I’ve ever done.
Jammin September 1st
Awesome article but Mr Croft’s website is broked.
Taylor Satula September 1st
I wonder if his book about typography is going to be good. Fingers crossed it exists
Kevin Quillen September 2nd
The thing with ROR is there is a lot of overhead to get it to scale which can be costly and stressful. Check this article by Rob Conery:
http://blog.wekeroad.com/blog/imploding-rails-jesus-dhh-and-the-uncle-ben-principle/
Ahmad Alfy September 2nd
I love PHP and ROR
nothing wrong on working with php
Very inspiring interview
The new lesson today
Ignore IE. Period.
mahalie September 5th
Agree with 99% of article, except perhaps the PHP dig. There’s scalability issues with Ruby that may indeed make it go the way of the dinosaur. PHP is a lasting foundation and with PHP5 lots more to learn and take advantage of. Jumping on every new language cause it’s trendy is not what I would do…also, with ajax, esp. yummy jQuery options, you can easily create a ‘ROR’ looking/behaving app, especially with emerging frameworks like CodeIgnitor, PHPCake, etc.
And I wish I could ignore IE too, and frankly, I do mostly
Rob November 19th
Anyone who thinks standards and validation are not important is not a computer programmer and only adds to confusion for noobs who don’t know computer programming either. Jeff should stfu on things he knows nothing about.
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